We’ve known that Rockstar is taking their flagship franchise, Grand Theft Auto V, back to the west coast since the first trailer dropped a little over a year ago, and finally – FINALLY – some honest-to-goodness details about the game are trickling out. Thank the fine folks over at IGN for this treasure chest of knowledge.

Who? For the first time in GTA history, there will be multiple playable characters. The twist: players will be constantly switching between the three – named Michael, Trevor and Franklin – during missions, all with the press of a button. Given Rockstar’s sterling track record, we should all be very, very excited bout this innovative new style.

What? There will be multiple gameplay upgrades, including tweaks to driving and shooting, driving in particular being given a lot of attention. But all in all, this still a GTA game. Good on Rockstar for not messing with success; anything even flirting with motion-sensing controls and they would have one angry Internet on their hands.

Where? As with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, V will take place in Los Santos, not-so-loosely based on Los Angeles. But then, we knew that a year ago. What we didn’t know was the massive f*cking scope of the in-game map: according to IGN, Rockstar’s SoCal replica will be larger than the maps of Red Dead Redemption, San Andreas and GTA4 combined. Take a second or two to mentally add up all of those digital square miles.

When? The game will drop in the Spring of 2013. Also known as “not soon enough.”

I honestly think GTA peaked at San Andreas. That game, to me, will always be the best Grand Theft Auto. The storyline of singleplayer was fun, and I remember when I first played it being amazed at how big the map was. The fact you could climb up Mt. Chilliad and it would take ages. I spent a lot of years roleplaying on San Andreas: Multiplayer too, which was even more fun.

GTA IV disappointed me, so I just hope that GTA V doesn’t. It sounds great, hopefully it can come close to San Andreas but we’ll see.

Yeah. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it was cool. The physics were amazing, the graphics were amazing. It just didn’t feel right, and I’m not really sure why. Maybe it’s because I got bored of the storyline… dunno.

GTA IV was basicaly a showcase for their new engine, they had to build it from scratch so all the time went into that and making New York. Asides from that it had the best scenario / cinematic experience of the franchise, but once you finished it there was nothing more.

GTA V will surely be reminescent of San Andreas, where all the development time will be put into content and Im sure Rockstar mentality behind this one is that you’re gonna get some for your money.

Vice City will forever be the GOAT. Never played it but i heard Batman: Arkham City had the largest in-game map so far (don’t quote me). Theses updates on GTAV sound good though, hopefully we can see some actual in-game footage soon.

Even though I’ve prefered the Saints Row series since San andreas – if you like san andreas, try SR3, ridiculous overthetop fun – Rockstar always gets me excited for the next GTA. Multi-protagonists could be a stroke of genius.

Pre-order at Gamestop yesterday in College Park and pre-paid for the whole thing. I got a viewfinder and a poster with it…may be I jumped the gun too quickly. I hope Amazon doesn’t offer a DLC with a pre-order; I will be blown. -_-